Chinese Media Industry Changes
As Publications Seek Investors

BEIJING -- Private investors in China are moving into unlikely territory: The once-sacrosanct media sector that has long been regarded as a bastion of the Communist Party.

In a warren of offices painted in the regulation-blue colors of the National Basketball Association of the U.S., Zheng Chong shows off the latest issue of NBA Time, a flashy monthly that seeks to ride the sport's huge popularity in China. Launched in late 1999 by Mr. Zheng and three friends with backing from a private property developer, the magazine...